Modes of Thinking - Cut the Knot!, Alexander Bogomolny
Mathematics is verbal for it's a language, and it is abstract for in its heart one finds proofs and axiomatizations. It is symbolic, rational, logical, and, nowadays, it is very digital. These are all indications that mathematics is firmly entrenched
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Moment of Truth - Keith Devlin (Devlin's Angle)
"Just what do we mean by a 'proof'? It seems that mathematicians - and to avoid generating too many letters of complaint, let me hasten to rephrase that as 'we mathematicians' - are somewhat schizophrenic when it comes to answering this question. When
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Monopoly Dollars and Sense - Ivars Peterson (MathLand)
The same rules underlie all of the varied editions of Monopoly, which feature themes ranging from golf to your favorite city. It's possible to describe the game in terms of a mathematical construction called a Markov chain, named for the Russian mathematician
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More Complicated Than It Seems - Kate Nonesuch
In this review of the literature of approaches to adult numeracy instruction, Kate Nonesuch asks the question, "How can ABE math instructors apply research findings to their own teaching practice?" Through an extensive literature review and ongoing discussions
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More than Magic Squares - Ivars Peterson (MathLand)
Peterson writes about magic squares, quoting Benjamin Franklin's interest in them. In addition to giving a few examples, Peterson also mentions Victor E. Hill IV's musing about whether the discoverer of the magic square actually set out to find an example
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Motion of Fluid Interfaces - J. A. Sethian
A paper and movie about a rising bubble. Imagine an air bubble rising in water, a thermal of hot air rising on a cold day, or smoke rising out of smokestack. In each case, the interface between the two fluids will change dramatically as the fluids move.
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Motion under Curvature - J. A. Sethian
A paper and movie of a curvature collapse. A famous theorem in differential geometry, proved less than ten years ago, says that any simple closed curve moving under its curvature collapses nicely to a circle and then disappears. That is, no matter how
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MOTIVATE - Univ. of Cambridge, UK
MOTIVATE is a project incorporating a series of videoconferences, run by the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge. The objectives of MOTIVATE are: to enrich the mathematical experience of school students, to broaden their mathematical horizons,
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MSRI Journal - Ivars Peterson (MathTrek)
The new journalist-in-residence program at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley, California represents one effort to improve communication of mathematics. Peterson will spend the summer of 1999 there.
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Multidimensional Analysis - George W. Hart
A brief introduction to Multidimensional Analysis, a generalization of linear algebra that incorporates ideas from dimensional analysis. The central idea is that vectors and matrices as used in science and engineering can be thought of as having elements
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Multimedia Documents - The Geometry Center
Conference proceedings; research papers that use hypertext to present information in a non-linear fashion, many including movies or interactive pictures; expository papers that use hypertext to present information about mathematics or the Geometry Center
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Multivariate polynomial interpolation - Shayne Waldron
A summary of some on-going investigations into the error in multivariate interpolation. This page is organised to more generally serve those interested in multivariate polynomial interpolation (error formulae and computations). Work on differencing, multi-point
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Murder and the Economist - Ivars Peterson (MathTrek)
The prominent role of economic principles is certainly evident in all the mysteries of Marshall Jevons. It doesn't take long for protagonist Henry Spearman to begin invoking economic theory in Murder at the Margin, which started the series off in 1978.
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My Reckonings - Ron Doerfler
Doerfler's book Dead Reckonings: Calculating without Instruments "describes techniques of computation and approximation that can be used to rapidly and mentally calculate mathematical quantities." Other sections of the site discuss sundials; astrolabes
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